List of international goals scored by Thierry Henry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thierry Henry is a retired French international footballer, who held the record for the most goals scored for the France national team until being surpassed by Olivier Giroud in 2022.[1] During his international career he played 123 games for France in which he scored 51 goals.[2] Henry made his international debut against South Africa in a 2–1 victory in October 1997.[3] His first international goal came in the 1998 FIFA World Cup against South Africa.[3] He surpassed the previous all-time French goal-scoring record, held by Michel Platini, in October 2007 when he scored twice against Lithuania, taking his tally to 43.[4] Henry retired from international football in July 2010 after a 13-year career, making his final appearance as a substitute, against South Africa, in France's "disastrous" (lowest ever Finals placement) 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign. Henry scored his 51st and final goal for France against Austria the preceding October.[3]
Henry never scored an international hat-trick, although he did score twice in a match on seven occasions.[2] He scored more times against Malta than any other team, with four goals, scored in back-to-back qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2004.[2] More than half of Henry's goals came in home matches, 31 of his 51 goals being scored in France, including 20 at the Stade de France.[2]
16 of Henry's goals came in friendlies.[2] A tally of four goals in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup made Henry the tournament's top scorer and led to his being voted the "tournament's most outstanding player".[5] He scored twelve goals in UEFA European Championship qualifiers, including six in the qualification phase of UEFA Euro 2004, where he finished as third-equal top scorer, behind Slovenia's Ermin Šiljak and Spain's Raúl.[6]